A Sense of Style

I hope you had a happy Hop Day! 

For today I drank two styles of beer:  an American Pale Ale (APA) and an Extra Special Bitter (ESB).  In both styles, hops are the key; and since there is a bit of overlap between the two styles, here is a quick run-down of similar styles and what typically makes them different from one another:

• Bitter is an ale typically made with a pale malt.  Extra Special Bitter typically refers to stronger versions while Ordinary is on the low end and Best or Special falls somewhere between.  Many are adjunct beers (made with other grains in addition to the barley malt) which tends to make them a bit crisp.
• Pale Ales are typically stronger, and many are all malt.  American Pale Ales are typically stronger than English Pale Ales, but the real difference is the way the hops come through in the flavor (American Pale Ales being brewed with American hops).
• India Pale Ales are part of the Pale Ale family, but they are typically a little paler, stronger and more bitter than other pale ales.  The American IPA is much like other IPAs, but with American hops.

Honestly there is a good deal of overlap with these styles, so it is possible to drink to different styles from two different breweries and find that they have a lot in common.  That wasn’t the case for me, though.  Both beers are from Schlafly in St. Louis. 

The first beer was a Schlafly Dry Hopped APA.  The head formed more quickly than I anticipated and faded slowly.  I had to pour half a bottle at a time to fill my glass without overflowing.  The biscuit-colored head was dense, but still fluffy.  It smelled faintly of hops and was a murky reddish orange.  It had a mild flavor, starting dry like a red wine with a thick malty texture.  This was not a “coffee” beer, but it had something of the acidity and bitterness that I notice when drinking from a black coffee.  Aside from an unassuming bitterness that would be at home in a maibock, it tasted like dry wheat toast.  It was a decent beer - I give it three stars.

The second beer was a Schlafly Winter ESB.  It had a short, fizzy head that faded fast.  The beer was a reddish walnut color and smelled slightly floral backed by the smell of rising bread dough.  It was bitter, tart and fizzy; sweet with a hint of caramel.  The sourness was citrusy.  To me it seemed a little medicinal.  The carbonation was too fizzy and I kept thinking of Alka-Seltzer.  I was also expecting it to be a little heavier.  Overall, I didn’t care for it - I give it one star.

Export IPA

Happy Hop Day!  Tonight I’m drinking a Schlafly Export IPA.   Schlafly Brand is brewed in Saint Louis by The Saint Louis Brewery, Inc.  They are the largest locally owned independent brewery in the St. Louis area, and they have two brew-pubs:  The Schlafly Tap Room in Downtown St. Louis and Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood.  Schlafly is distributed mostly within 300 miles of St. Louis.  The Export IPA is one of their Special Release seasonal beers (March-April AVB 7.2%, IBU 65.)

It poured a nice white frothy head and was a good orange color.  The scent was wonderful and fruity:  apricots and peaches with a little raisin and citrus.  The flavor was even better.  It was biscuit and fruity - sweet like banana and apricot.  There wasn’t much bitterness - just a touch at the end.  It’s not what I expect when I think of an IPA, but it is REALLY tasty.  I love this beer!

Brew Tour

Last November (2011), Amanda had a work conference in Las Vegas.  I needed a get-away, and since lodging was already covered, we only had to pay for my flight and expenses.  Since I didn’t have much money, I decided to take a walking beer-tour of the strip and the surrounding area.

When we checked into the hotel, the bell-boy and I chatted and he suggested Ellis Island.  I got myself a map and checked the internet to make a plan.  I intended to get started first thing in the morning, thinking that in a place like the strip that wouldn’t be an issue.  I was wrong.

Brew pubs and beer bars open at 11:00 a.m.  Since I’d left our room at 8:30 that morning, I walked an awful lot before I got my first beer - at the Sin City Brewing Company bar at the Flamingo. 

Sin City Brewing Co.

Sin City Brewing has two other locations, one at the Miracle Mile and one at the Venetian, but both are tiny - just a small bar with a few stools, open to the shopping centers in which they’re located.  They didn’t have a sampler, but the bar tender agreed to pour me a sip of whatever I wanted before I bought a pint.  I paid $6.00/glass, and all things considered it wasn’t a bad price for where I was drinking and what I was getting.

• Their stout was pretty good - smooth and very drinkable.  It had a mild caramel nose, Light mouth feel that coats your mouth with a soft maltiness, and a little bitterness on the aftertaste.
• Their Amber was my favorite.  They describe it as a “Full bodied Octoberfest beer.”  It was malty and smooth without much bitterness.  Very pleasant.

Gordon Biersch Brewing Co.

Gordon Biersch was recommended by my friend, Scott, and I have to admit they are fantastic!  I had a salad and their garlic fries along with their beer sampler.  The following are the beers I sampled in order from my least favorite (which was still a good beer) to my most favorite:

• Czech Pilsner - Crisp and malty, balanced nicely by a bit of hop bitterness
• Märzen - Bready with a slightly floral hop finish, and a sweet-malty scent
• Golden Export - Malty with a hint of hops.  It has a mild scent and a good aftertaste
• Hefeweizen - Malty with a little pleasant sourness and a scent that was a bit sour and musky.  It was light and very nice
• A Seasonal IPA - Despite the floral scent, the flavor was more of a sweet, fruity hops with a bitterness that lingered into the aftertaste.  It was a good IPA
• Schwarzbier - Normally I’m not a big fan of schwarzbiers, but theirs is really good.  It has a mild, malty scent, and the flavor, predominantly malty, leads with a bit of bitterness and ends with a fairly clean finish
• A Seasonal Winter Bock - Sweet and malty.  The flavor was strong (although not overpowering) with a lingering finish.  This was also their darkest beer

Hofbräuhaus Las Vegas

Compared to the Old German Beer Hall in Milwaukee, I found it a little disappointing. – The Las Vegas location is bigger, but that's all it has on Milwaukee.  The dining hall is separated from the front bar and gift shop.  The taps at the bar are on a giant stainless steel T that is mounted on the bar, and it takes up enough space to visually block what seems like nearly half of the bar.  The beer was great, but I’ve long been a big fan of Hofbräu beers.  My suggestion is to get a table rather than sitting at the bar.  They have daily lunch specials, but it looked like their menu paired sausage with fries rather than kraut, potato salad or red cabbage like I would have expected.

Ellis Island Casino & Brewery

If I were to do it over, I would skip Ellis Island Casino and Brewery, but if you’re short on funds, you should know they were the least expensive beers I’d found.  There is a seating area near the brewery equipment, but it isn’t a brew pub.  It’s the seating for pizza and for BBQ, which open late in the day.  The bar at the other end of the building serves the beer brewed there.  I can say, that the bartender working the day I was there was very nice.

• Their IPA was light amber and tasted much like a light beer with a little bit of hoppiness.  I’d prefer it to a macro brew, but it wasn’t much when you expect an IPA.
• The Weiss was not impressive either, and after that I wasn’t interested in trying their other beers.

The Pub at Monte Carlo

This was my favorite place to drink, and the atmosphere was great.  The lighting was subdued, and the décor emphasized two things:  beer and sports.  I sat at the bar and behind the bar was a wall of kegs and beer signs.  They had a 7 page beer menu which clearly indicated where beers were from and whether they were in bottles or on one of their many taps.  I had two Nevada beers there:

• Joseph James Brewing Co. Hop Box IPA - It was a beautiful reddish-amber color, and the lacy head clung to the glass.  The scent was mild and floral.  It had a great mouth feel.  There was a nice lingering bitterness around the back corners of my tongue.  The flavor was sweet, not overly malty and had a floral bitterness.  I could have drunk a lot of it if they weren’t charging $9 for a pint.
• Tenaya Creek Brewing Co. Hop Ride IPA - It was a crystal clear golden orange with a dense lace from the head.  The scent was fruity, like a citrus-mango scent smelled across the room with open windows on a cool spring day.  The mouth feel was light around the edges of the mouth and the back of the palate but clingy and pucker on the roof of the mouth.  Bitterness is a little strong at the front of the mouth, reducing as it rolls to the back of the throat and there is a fruity sweetness that fades quickly.

Amanda’s partner at the conference told me that there was a nice bar a little further from the strip that was the place to go, but I didn’t have a chance to make it.  My conclusion is that you are better off looking for a bar with a good beer selection than looking for a brew pub, but I had a great deal of fun on my beer tour of the strip.

Spiced Winter Ale Bottled

Today I bottled the Spiced Winter Ale (Northern Brewer kit) that I brewed five weeks ago.  It spent two weeks in the primary fermenter and three in the secondary.  I finally had time to bottle it today.  It smelled good and looked good.  My only concern is that the hydrometer reading indicated there isn't much alcohol in it.  I may just be really bad with the hydrometer, but I'm not sure.  I have a lot to get done today, so I didn't double check with the refractometer - I figure it's too late now anyhow.  I'm going to just have to find out once I start drinking it.  And I can't wait!  I'm pretty sure I haven't repeated any of the mistakes I made on the last two batches, so now I just need to figure out what I have to learn from this batch.  I love brewing beer!  I can't wait until I'm good enough that I can make beers that I can show off and share with people.

Bitter Boulevard

Happy Hop Day!  I like IPAs, but bitter is done well in other styles as well.  Not going too far afield, we’re going to look at two beers by Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri.  Boulevard has been in operation since 1989 and they lay claim to being the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest.

A claim like that could mean a number of things - largest unaffiliated with major brewing conglomerate, largest selection, largest distribution area, largest production in gallons, etc.  Someday I should look at the claims each brewery makes to see just what they mean.  Regardless, I’ve enjoyed every beer that I’ve had by them, so until I decide to look further, I’ll just keep drinking.

For my friends in Wisconsin, you’ll find their beer hard to find, since it isn’t distributed here (I got mine from a friend in O’Fallon, MO).  This is intentional, because they believe that their limited regional distribution helps them focus on maintaining a variety of wonderful and fresh beers.

One of their first Beers was the Boulevard Pale Ale, which is one of the two beers I’ve recently drunk.  It is a beautiful reddish orange with a soft, cream-colored head.  It has a mild malty-citrusy scent and a pleasant, light mouth feel.  The taste begins with a bitterness that’s almost fizzy with a bready finish.  It is more malty than bitter, but very well balanced.  Honestly, I wish I’d been eating a grilled cheese sandwich when I drank it.

The other beer that I had was their Double-Wide IPA.  It poured a more murky orange with slightly brownish undertones, but it had a wonderful, white, fluffy head like whipped egg whites.  The scent was an engaging floral aroma with a hint of sour.  The mouth feel was crisp in the way that I love on hot days.  The flavor is predominantly an earthy bitterness that is almost a little chalky with just a hint of malt.  If you don’t like bitter, then you won’t like this beer because that is it’s defining characteristic.  Although the flavor was almost disappointingly monochromatic, the lack of breadth did not ruin the beer for me.  Simply put, I enjoyed it.

End of the Hop-Day Hiatus

As much as I'd rather drink beer (and write about it), my day job had to be a priority.  But things seem to be returning to normal, so that means beer!  Since Wednesday (Independence Day!) wasn't really much of a hump-day, Tuesday was my hump-day this week, marking the first day where my daily schedule returned to normal.  So after work I went out with my friend Brad.

We grabbed supper at McBob's Pub and Grill on North Ave, just off of Hwy 41.  If you've never eaten there, then I highly suggest going and having their corned beef.  They have the best corned beef sandwich I've ever had!  In addition to good food, they also have a decent selection of beers (macro, micro and import) on tap and a good selection of bottled craft beers. 

While I was there I tried Bear Republic's Racer 5 IPA.  It is a golden American India Pale Ale (7.0% ABV / 75 IBU).  It is an award winning beer (several years at the Great American Beer Festival).  It was good, easy to drink and was a comfortable companion to good conversation.  It was bitter without being overwhelming, but it brought some nice flavor to balance out the bitter.  I give it 3 3/4 stars.